Praying Out Loud

I have never been very good at praying out loud. The thought of it makes me incredibly nervous. As our children have gotten older, we have started teaching them to pray. Sometimes I forget to pray at certain times, like before a meal but my kids almost always remind me. In order to remain consistent and teach them, I have had to "suck it up" and pray out loud. This normally isn't too big a deal because I am usually just at home with the three of them, however I have found myself in a more public setting, praying in front of numerous friends. YIKES! :) It is hard as I stumble over my words and/or stutter, but as I practice more and more, it becomes easier and feels more comfortable. Nothing like your children holding you accountable and keeping you on track.

Pearl Harbor Day - Spiritual Birthday

Today marks the 67th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack. It is also the day that I came to know Jesus, my "spiritual birthday" as my in-laws call it. I just had to share with you all - the bizarre and numerous reminders I received of this special day - that were brought before me.

I always remember my "spritual birthday" is on Pearl Harbor day and also the day of one of my previous co-workers birthday because I remember I was saved when I worked with her and I remember telling her, "we now have the same birthday".

Back to my story... It started this morning as I was driving to church and thinking about what the date is, going to church on my spiritual birthday was special.

Then, this evening, Craig and I randomly decided to watch a movie (that he had recorded a while back) together after putting the babies to bed. The movie was based on a true story and right at the beginning of the movie, they stated that the events taking place were on December 7th.

Later, I began going through some emails that I hadn't yet had time to read. One of which was an email of a Christmas poem I received from my sister in law. The poem is a military-based poem and references Pearl Harbor.

Finally, I read another email from another sister in law regarding gun control and it referenced Pearl Harbor.

Coincidence??? Maybe...

God speaking to me??? Probably...

I didn't fall off the face of the earth!

Happy Friday all! I am alive! I think this is the longest I have gone without updating you, but life has been a little crazy the past few weeks.

I had another shower on Saturday, the 27th. It was a very nice shower, the hostesses did a beautiful job. We had a wonderful turn out. There were so many people there, I don't think the house could hold one more person! A funny story... It had been pretty cool that morning, so Jean (Craig's aunt) had turned all the air off and didn't remember to turn it on. It warmed up quite a bit in the afternoon, and with 50+ people in the house, you can imagine how warm it was. I kept saying things to different people about it being warm, but it wasn't until way later that Jean realized she had all the air off. Finally, they brought out a big fan pointed straight on me to help cool me off. I think because all eyes were on me, I was a little nervous, which also contributed to my oven temps. Jean, I hope this wasn't too embarrassing for you that I put this story on here, but this blog is my journal as well as a means for updating you all. I didn't want to forget that...it was too funny!

Thanks again to all the ladies who helped make this shower so wonderful. The food, punch, cake, fellowship and presents were great! We appreciate all the love and hard work you put in to make this shower so special for us, and we thank you all very much.



That same day, we had a Halloween party to attend. I was of course exhausted, but Craig really wanted to go, so we went and had a good time. We didn't really plan to dress up because we weren't sure if we would even make it due to the busy schedule that weekend. Since we did go, we made our own costumes this year. I was an oven with three buns in it and Craig was my chef. It was a cute idea Anna Marie thought of.



Of course, I didn't wear my costume very long. It was a little hard to move around much (not that I was doing much of that) or more importantly EAT!





Brian & Anna Marie aka the old lady and Oompa-Loompa



Sunday, the 28th, the ladies at my church threw us a shower. It was also very lovely and sweet. I was a little sappy at first because the ladies who host the shower have a tradition where they pray for us, the babies, their arrival, their future, their spouses...things like that, and it was so sweet to hear them praying for us and our babies well-being. We had a nice time opening presents and oohing and ahhing over everything; the desserts and punch were great as well as the fellowship and sharing of baby stories. Thank you all very much for coming and helping make the shower so special. We appreciate you all very much.

This triplet pregnancy is aging me already...

Today around 1:30 or so I discovered that I was spotting. It wasn't a lot of blood but it wasn't a little either. I immediately freaked out and started crying. I called Craig crying uncontrollably and told him what was going on and he said he was on his way home. I then called my doctor to tell them and they told me to come in. While waiting for Craig to get home, I sent out a massive email to about 100 people asking for prayer. Thank you all so much for the prayers and support. Anyway, after Craig got home, we went to the doctor and they did a sonogram. Amazingly, all three of the babies looked great. They all had good heart beats and were all about the same size. My doctor suspected I might have had a blood vessel burst in my cervix because apparently when pregnant, the cervix is more vascular. She said everything looked great with the pregnancy. What a scare!! We were so relieved.

Other than that, everything looks good... Well, other than that my OB thinks I have a mild case of hyper-stimulation. That is just because my ovaries are so enlarged and I have some cysts that are pretty large as well. There is still a chance my hyper-stimulation could get worse over the next few weeks, which could be a serious problem, but it is unlikely. I just have to pay attention to the symptoms I am having and take certain precautions. I am not really worried about it. That is good because I have enough other stuff to worry about. :)

Craig was still very shaken up even after we got the good news. Poor thing...he had a really rough day at work today dealing with his impossible boss. They forced his transfer with work back two more weeks. I think this had some to do with some of his emotions. He is such a sweet and protective husband. Before we knew everything was okay with the babies, he feared my spotting could have been related to his stresses at work. I tried to tell him that wasn't it. He wasn't convinced until he got confirmation from the doctor. So, now I think his anger toward his boss has subsided some. :)

Well, I have much better sonogram pictures, but we still haven't figured out what is wrong with our scanner. They look like they have grown quite a bit just since last Friday. This is very exciting!!! I promise I will post them on here once we get it working.

Oh and a big thanks to Suzanne and her blog buddies for the insight and encouragement with a multiple pregnancy. Your support and encouragement has truly helped me so much!